Facial tissues are generally packaged in a six-panel rectangular paperboard box containing a stack of inter-folded tissue sheets. Typically, the paperboard box has an opening in the center of the top paperboard panel that is sealed with a flexible polyethylene sheet membrane having a slit down the center that acts as a dust shield. Tissues are dispensed by pulling them, one at a time, through the slit in the membrane. Most people have experienced grabbing a tissue from a box of facial tissue, only to have the box lift from the surface on which it is resting, along with the tissue that is being removed from it. Likewise, most people have also experienced having to put one hand on the box to stabilize it and prevent it from lifting when a tissue is removed with the other hand. This typically happens when the box is only partly full and the weight of the box and the remaining enclosed tissues is insufficient to overcome the friction generated as a tissue is being pulled from the box through the slit in the sheet membrane.
Several decades ago, a product was advertised that was intended to overcome the problem described above. The tissue box sat on top of a two-part steel plate that was about the same size as the bottom of a standard tissue box. The plate was equipped with sharp projections that engaged the sides of the tissue box near the bottom thereof in order to hold the two-part steel plate in place.
The problem described above was never adequately resolved because the sharp projections that engaged the sides of the tissue box soon became disengaged from the box and the two-part plate fell off. In addition, the two-part plate had to be the same size as the box and would not accommodate a variety of box sizes and shapes as does my invention. Furthermore, the weight of the two-part plate was greater than it needed to be to stabilize the box, thereby making it difficult to carry the box from one location to another.
About the same time that the two-part plate product was on the market, there was another product intended to solve the same problem. This product consisted of a single rectangular sheet metal plate that was one inch longer and one inch wider than the top panel of a standard size of tissue box. The edges of the panel were downwardly bent at 90-degree angles so that the panel fitted snugly over the top of the box. There was also a cutout to accommodate the removal of tissues from the box opening. This product had problems similar to those of the two-part plate product: The weight of the device was excessive; the metal plate would only accommodate one size of tissue box; and the metal plate was not secured to the box.